April032012

Chris Mooney, Host of Post of Inquiry,
discusses motivated reasoning and the "Smart Idiots" effect: he rebuts
the conventional wisdom that if you put good information and argument
out there and teach the public how to critically think, they will have a
clearer idea of what is "truth." More education actually leads to
higher degree of partisan beliefs. Arguing for facts alone does not
help; more education is not the key: the public denies science not
necessarily because they are uneducated but because they think "their"
science is better.

March162012

Yochai Benkler tells four stories of how
misinformation spreads, and is corrected (sometimes), online: the story
of how the agenda around Wikileaks was set; the story of a national
broadband strategy influenced by industry; the story of Obama's $200
million/day trip to India; and the story of a bipartisan internet piracy
bill that took a left turn when the public got wind.

The celebration coincided with another 40th commemoration, but this time it's the end of the 40 days period after the death of the Maspero martyrs. And there is a huge difference between this 40th commemoration and that.
About 40 days ago, 27 martyrs died in a bloody day when one of the most brutal acts was committed on peaceful demonstrators, who went out to condemn the burning of a church, which happened earlier.
At the same time the revolutionaries demonstrated to clearly and directly condemn the Maspero massacre and SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces), Pope Shenouda and the Holy Synod met with those who planned, instigated and committed the massacre with a welcoming smile, in a deal we are used to see between the two authorities - the political and the religious authorities.

Alaa defended the Christian protesters against the violence and the crimes of the military and stood in solidarity with them with his body and soul, while the Holy Synod had friendly meetings with the murderers.

Seeing this Diana and Mina Zekri decided to create a new hashtag on Twitter to celebrate the Pope's 40th ordination anniversary in their own way:

@_TaMaTeM_: You lead the whole country to follow you without thinking, using the principle of “Blessed is the obedient son” … you even convinced them that it's a verse in the bible … and they believed you. #40fuckinyears

The Egyptian law makes it harder for Christians to build new churches, and that's why some people called for a unified law for building places of worship for all religions. But according to RunGeo, Pope Shenouda had a different opinion.

@RunGeo: Whenever we ask for a unified law for places of worship, you refuse op that the other Christian sects are not able to build as many churches as the Orthodox. What the hell! #40fuckinyears

Mina Zekri added that sectarianism and hatred for other religions and sects in Pope Shenouda's era reached an unprecedented level. He then continued to explain to Rehab Bassam (@hadouta) what he means.

@minazekri: In 2009, His Holiness announced his support to Gamal Mubarak in the presidential elections and said he is the best successor to his father even though he wasn't even running for president yet.

@Ma7moudkassem: The battle with the Evangelists is the same silly one the Salafists have with the Soufis and Shiaa. Standing against anything different and calling it infidel. #40fuckinyears

Mohamed Fouda added his two cents to the hashtag:

@mohamedfouda: We should learn that no man is above criticism even those who call themselves clergy men, as no man is divine #40FuckinYears #Salafis

Finally, Dalia Ezzat called it “an amazing courage by some Egyptian Copts criticizing their religious leadership”, while Sotsoy - like many other users - found it “distasteful”. Peter Gamil said he is against ordination celebrations now, but he is also against the way people criticized the Pope in the hashtag. He also added that they Pope did not forget the Martyrs of Maspero, however in the Christian traditions they should be happy for the martyrs and celebrate their martyrdom instead of mourning it. Beshoy Naeem called it “social hypocrisy” and Fadi Mckean sees it as a way for some Christians to prove how secular they are.

November152011

Arab netizens are watching with awe news of New York police forcefully evicting Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York. Some say they are “pulling a Mubarak” in reference to the brutal manner in which Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak dealt with protesters who ousted him in the Egyptian revolution.

Among them is Egyptian activist Gigi Ibrahim, who is in New York, who notes that the New York police force is “pulling a Mubarak” in the way they suppress protests:

Activist and blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah has been detained for 15 days, after refusing to be interrogated by the Military Prosecutor, in protest against its legitimacy.

He appeared at the Military Prosecutor, along with fellow activist Bahaa Saber, today as supporters gathered outside, denouncing military trials. Since January 28, more than 12,000 civilians have been tried by military courts in Egypt. Abd El Fattah has since been transferred to prison, while Saber will soon be released.

@gamaleid: Alaa Seif refused to be interrogated by the Military Prosecutor because it is part of the army and the army itself is accused in the crime. It is illegal for an accused to interrogate another accused party

Friends, it's easy to be against something. It is a whole other vegan burrito to provide workable and empirically tested policy prescriptions for what ails us. So far, I have seen none of that rigor coming out of the Wall Street protests or any of the other Occupy protests around the country and the world. Instead, I see more of the hyper-emotional knee-jerk prescriptions that got us in this mess, including government forgiveness of student loans (which would simply fast-start a another loan bubble, and re-ignite the financial crisis).Maybe it's time to tone down the rhetoric and get to work thinking through whether you are the solution or the continuance of the problem.
In the meantime, this Recovering Radical will strive to abide in the realm of the workable, fundable, and achievable. Take what you like, and smoke the rest.

-------------------------------------

oAnth:

An unpleasant reminder! - anyway worth a reading: that's what is going on apart from the digitalized solidarity of protest and occupy activism and advocacy.

October062011

“

[...]

But while the update, and today’s return to a
blackout-free site, may represent a superficial victory for Wikipedia —
and a nod to the encyclopedia’s network-effects-rooted power as, yep, a
political lobbying force — the bill still holds. And the episode
overall is a good reminder of the generally dismal status of press
freedom in Italy. Berlusconi owns the influential private media company Mediaset; he exercises direct control over state television. Italy’s 100,000 professional journalists, to get work, must belong to the Ordine dei Giornalisti — a group that is, in effect, a modern-day guild. This year’s Freedom House survey of global press freedom, citing “heavy media concentration and official interference in state-owned outlets,” ranked Italy as only “partly free.”

It’s a worrisome state of affairs — one that Italian journalists are
both keenly aware of and, as the DDL intercettazioni episode suggests,
largely powerless to fight. As La Repubblica’s Vittorio Zambardino, the paper’s “Scene Digitali” blogger, told me
when I met him in Perugia last year, over-regulation of journalism and
the online space is a constant threat in Italy. And, for that matter,
in Europe (and elsewhere) more broadly. “There’s a wide array of social
processes that are produced by the Internet that are also endangering
the virtue and the value of the Internet,” Zambardino said. He
continued:

Freedom is going to be killed by strict regulation taken
by governments. In Italy, we are very worried about this. But it’s not
only Italy: the European Union has very strict views about privacy,
about anonymity, about what they call “the freedom of the Internet.” In
an ironic way — because they don’t believe in the freedom of the
Internet.

October032011

The website Occupy Together offers a wealth of information on the social movements catalyzing in many cities in the United States and in other countries around the world against corporate greed and corruption.

September292011

The statement is really worth watching: an IMO
successful attempt of a short resume about the international pro
democracy and anti austerity + corruption movement and its possible
political new implications, as they showed up by the recent results of
the German Pirate Party in the city parliament of Berlin (status of a
German state/Land ) with a sudden jump from zero to almost nine percent.

September222011

Despite the reprieve granted to Troy Davis earlier today, just over four hours after our last report, Davis was executed.

Around the world, and particularly in the United States, Twitter is in a state of morning. The hashtag #RIPTroyDavis is currently trending, and individuals are expressing their feelings about Davis's case, as well as about the state of capital punishment in the United States.

#TroyDavis will be the fuel I need to continue my quest for social justice. He will never be forgotten. #RIPTroyDavis

While the case of Troy Davis has certainly drawn interest from the public, many are cynical that the case is a one-off, and that US citizens will not continue to fight against the death penalty. Or as Palestinian @Falasteeni put it shortly before the execution took place:

What saddens me most abt expected murder of #TroyDavis is tht nothing will happen, no movement will grow to make sure it never happens again

September212011

In the United States, where capital punishment is legal in all but fourteen states, the case of Troy Davis has drawn ire from abolitionist activists. Davis was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989 during a trial in which there was no DNA evidence implicating him, but merely the testimony of witnesses, several of whom later recanted their statements.

Davis was given the death penalty, and his first execution scheduled for July 17, 2007. After appeals by Davis's lawyers, NGOs, and numerous celebrities, Davis was granted a stay of execution. Twice his execution was re-scheduled, and both times Davis was granted a stay; then, following a federal appeal in 2010–which was rejected–his execution was once again scheduled, for September 21, 2011.

In the hours and minutes leading up to the execution, scheduled for 7pm local time, individuals from all across the globe continued to rally for a stay of execution. Using the hashtags #Troy Davis, #TooMuchDoubt, and #TheWholeWorldIsWatching.

a western democracy, a supposed bastion of human rights, should not take the life of a possibly innocent citizen #thewholeworldiswatching

In the end, their tweets–along with ample offline activism–served as a rallying cry against the execution of a potentially innocent man. Just a few minutes after 7pm, news broke on Twitter that Davis had been granted a stay of execution. Said @Colorlines: